Im glad we got Henry as opposed to the other DB's that were on the market at the time and i feel like he has played adeqaute. Our lack of pressure may negatively and unfairly cloud my perception of him this season though. I understand that a db can only hang with a reciever for so long, but it seems like Henry gets beat deep alot more than he should. I dont mind so much when he gives things up underneath but i feel like someitmes he plays too aggresive and that results in him getting beat deep.

If Newman can pull a nate clements job on marvin harrison that would be ideal, we need him to play physical and take marvin out of the game early. Im very worried about Henry on Wayne though, i just dont think he can stay with him. Rotating Watkins/Davis over the top to help him does nothing to sure up my concerns either. I believe that our biggest concerns in the game should be coverage on wayne and the tight ends. Dallas Clark is dangerous and Utecht has come into his own as of late. Hopefully, The speed we gain by losing ellis will be to our advantage in this game. Carpenter/Burnett/ and or Singleton really need to step up this week and play good coverage when the colts come out with a two tight end set. This should be crucial to us winning, but i still think the biggest threat will be Wayne. If Henry can play wayne better than he has been played all year then i think we have a great shot of winning. I dont really have many concerns with Newman, hes got great speed and is evenly matched with Harrison as far as size goes... Plus he hasnt given up a touch down since '04. With that being said about the DB's, Ware and whoever fills for ellis really really really need to apply some pressure for us to help out our DB's, because god knows you cannot give these recievers time.

On the other end of the ball i really like our chances. Romo is going up against a secondary that isnt on the level of either the panthers or the skins and the indy pass rush has been non-existent up to this point. The only real concern I have is Bob Sanders. Individually, i do not think he is that great, but what concerns me is the "roy williams" element he brings to their blitz shceme and run suppot. One player can make a big difference and i hope his being injured isnt the sole factor for indy's bad pass rush this season. T.O. should man handle the secondary. I hope we get glenn back but i feel like this knee problem is going to be one that is nagging the rest of the season and thats really unfortunate.

My out on a limb prediction for a great individual performance this game has to do with Julius Jones. In the past he has shown up huge in big time games. This year he hasnt really had a break out game and im thinking he doesnt do as much as he has in the past but i see him getting 120+ yards and 2 td's. We just need to get him a big run early and let him roll from there.

In summary, i believe the key to this game is Henry's play against Wayne, if we win that battle alone, i see us having a great chance at coming out on top.

The Cowboys' defense has shut out its opponents in 14 of 36 quarters this season, including the first and third quarters Sunday at Arizona, and has not allowed more than a field goal in 19 quarters. A game-by-game look at the Cowboys' shutout quarters:

I was kinda scared of the Cards last week, but this week I feel good about beating the Colts. I tend to feel scared of teams we're supposed to beat and confident when we face teams we're supposed to lose against.

I hope that this game is shown in Hawaii. Man... if it's not... :evil:

I can't wait to see Carpenter on the field. He really had some moves rushing the passer. As the boys blog says, he shows more moves than Ware in 2 years. He's not the athlete that Ware is, but I see Carpenter as a very smart player with good size and instinct. I don't know I can someone says he's slow. Because he couldn't caught Cartwright from behind?
He's a cover guy and that's un upgrade over Ellis. I hope he shows what he can do, because he can be a very special player.

I can't wait to see Carpenter on the field. He really had some moves rushing the passer. As the boys blog says, he shows more moves than Ware in 2 years. He's not the athlete that Ware is, but I see Carpenter as a very smart player with good size and instinct. I don't know I can someone says he's slow. Because he couldn't caught Cartwright from behind?
He's a cover guy and that's un upgrade over Ellis. I hope he shows what he can do, because he can be a very special player.

Not expecting much out of Carp. Just hope he doesn't look like a fool. I have a feeling that Indy will be utilizing their TEs often in this game.

I think Newman can hold Harrison without a TD. Henry will shoulder a lot of pressure covering Wayne. He's gonna have to have to have his breakout game of the season this weekend. Not afraid of Indy's ground game.

I can't wait to see Carpenter on the field. He really had some moves rushing the passer. As the boys blog says, he shows more moves than Ware in 2 years. He's not the athlete that Ware is, but I see Carpenter as a very smart player with good size and instinct. I don't know I can someone says he's slow. Because he couldn't caught Cartwright from behind?
He's a cover guy and that's un upgrade over Ellis. I hope he shows what he can do, because he can be a very special player.

Not expecting much out of Carp. Just hope he doesn't look like a fool. I have a feeling that Indy will be utilizing their TEs often in this game.

I think Newman can hold Harrison without a TD. Henry will shoulder a lot of pressure covering Wayne. He's gonna have to have to have his breakout game of the season this weekend. Not afraid of Indy's ground game.

This is the game Julius needs to shine.

One thing that is key to this game....is the turnover ratio. In every game that has been close for Indy they have had a negative turnover ratio. If we can force some turnovers we have a good chance.

I also agree with the fact that JJ needs to have a big game...even tho every back that seems to go against the Colts has a big game. They have a terrible run defense...and I really think this will do wonders for our ball-control offense. This will be one of the few games where we won't have to use the pass to set up the run.

I really think that we need to score in the redzone. We have been a great team at getting points...but scoring touchdowns inside the 20 will be a big factor in this game. We should have some good oppurtunities to do this with their undersized LB using witten/fasano as well as TO to abuse their small corners in the redzone.

Interesting to see you mention lb and te...i also feel this will be a tell tale.

The thing that worries me is that in the press conference it came off to me that Singleton would get some snaps on more run downs whereas Carp would come in on maybe 2nd or 3rd down....plus carp will also probabaly get some snaps in nickle. I'm very worried about our nickel defense...it doesn't stack up well against 2 TE...i really dont' wanna see newman on clark...the one thing that I guess I could see is...Henry on Clark....Glenn/Newman on Wayne/Harrison. However I highly doubt we'll see ourselves stack up like that. I have a feeling we will be seeing more Singleton in this game because parcells won't want to overwork Carp...between special teams/standart d/nickle Carp should see alot of the field.

I can't wait to see Carpenter on the field. He really had some moves rushing the passer. As the boys blog says, he shows more moves than Ware in 2 years. He's not the athlete that Ware is, but I see Carpenter as a very smart player with good size and instinct. I don't know I can someone says he's slow. Because he couldn't caught Cartwright from behind?
He's a cover guy and that's un upgrade over Ellis. I hope he shows what he can do, because he can be a very special player.

Not expecting much out of Carp. Just hope he doesn't look like a fool. I have a feeling that Indy will be utilizing their TEs often in this game.

I think Newman can hold Harrison without a TD. Henry will shoulder a lot of pressure covering Wayne. He's gonna have to have to have his breakout game of the season this weekend. Not afraid of Indy's ground game.

This is the game Julius needs to shine.

hmmmm very insightful D-unit. Did you think of that all on your own orrr... did i not mention all of this at the top of the page?

I can't wait to see Carpenter on the field. He really had some moves rushing the passer. As the boys blog says, he shows more moves than Ware in 2 years. He's not the athlete that Ware is, but I see Carpenter as a very smart player with good size and instinct. I don't know I can someone says he's slow. Because he couldn't caught Cartwright from behind?
He's a cover guy and that's un upgrade over Ellis. I hope he shows what he can do, because he can be a very special player.

Not expecting much out of Carp. Just hope he doesn't look like a fool. I have a feeling that Indy will be utilizing their TEs often in this game.

I think Newman can hold Harrison without a TD. Henry will shoulder a lot of pressure covering Wayne. He's gonna have to have to have his breakout game of the season this weekend. Not afraid of Indy's ground game.

This is the game Julius needs to shine.

hmmmm very insightful D-unit. Did you think of that all on your own orrr... did i not mention all of this at the top of the page?

I don't know. Did you? Contrary to popular belief, I don't go back and read everyone's posts.

I think that the Cowboys will have to start someone besides Greg Ellis this week.

Back to all seriousness, I think we should put Ware on the Strong side this week... and see how he can handle it going forward. I think it took too long for Parcells to figure out that Ellis could play SOLB. I don't want to make that mistake again. SOLBs are harder to find and Burnett seems to be working well at WOLB anyways. If Ware can play both positions well, we could seriously confuse offenses and get the best match ups possible. I know Joey Porter plays both sides and that is part of the reason the Steelers can mix it up so much.

allowed
GMC NFL
long kickoff returns. Before Sunday, the Colts also allowed a 104-yard return for a touchdown against the New York Jets and an 87-yard punt return for a touchdown against Washington.

They also allowed a 48-yard kickoff return against Tennessee and a 41-yarder against Jacksonville.

If our special teams unit ever was to step up and return a big one it might be sunday.

Anyone else pissed off that our game got moved from primetime to 4:15 eastern?

The game was moved from noon Dallas time ( 1:00 EST ) to 3:15 Dallas time (4:15 EST) so it can be on national TV. You should be happy about that right since you don't live in the Dallas or Indy markets. I don't think it was going to be national TV before they moved the start time.

I was kinda scared of the Cards last week, but this week I feel good about beating the Colts. I tend to feel scared of teams we're supposed to beat and confident when we face teams we're supposed to lose against.

I hope that this game is shown in Hawaii. Man... if it's not... :evil:

I can't wait to see Carpenter on the field. He really had some moves rushing the passer. As the boys blog says, he shows more moves than Ware in 2 years. He's not the athlete that Ware is, but I see Carpenter as a very smart player with good size and instinct. I don't know I can someone says he's slow. Because he couldn't caught Cartwright from behind?
He's a cover guy and that's un upgrade over Ellis. I hope he shows what he can do, because he can be a very special player.

Not expecting much out of Carp. Just hope he doesn't look like a fool. I have a feeling that Indy will be utilizing their TEs often in this game.

I think Newman can hold Harrison without a TD. Henry will shoulder a lot of pressure covering Wayne. He's gonna have to have to have his breakout game of the season this weekend. Not afraid of Indy's ground game.

This is the game Julius needs to shine.

We need a 150 yds + out of JJ this week. Indy's run defense is horrible and we should be able to put up a total of 175 yds on the ground.

Indy's offense is a thing of beauty. Its so simple, contrary to popular belief, and its just so perfectly executed. Every single play, its Harrison on the right, Wayne on the left, Stokely in the slot, and Addai in the backfield. Theres no motions, theres no movement of players for favorable matchups etc, they don't overload one side of the field, no bunches formations, nothing. Its the same set every play, they just hike that ball and execute. And no one can stop it. Practice makes perfect, and they perfected their playbook.

We all know how to beat the Colts. Everyone does. But theyre undefeated, because stopping/containing Peyton in the regular season has become near impossible. Forget everything you hear, you can't "confuse" Peyton. Thats simply not true. If his 4th read is open, he'll hit him. The key to beating Peyton is "confusing" his protection, and getting in his face. Thats how you make Peyton crumble.

To beat him, you need great confusing pressure (which is why he has a harder time with the 3-4), and a solid secondary. You can't play zone against him, he'll hit that window everytime. You gotta have the talent in the secondary to man up, or the pressure in the front 7 to get him before he can let it go. Usually you need both. Theres only one team that can play zone on him, and thats the Patriots because their team is so disciplined in their zone assignments, theres hardly a missed assignment. Every other team in the league needs to bring the heat and pray the man assignments hold their ground.

So the key to this game is coming up with clever pass rushing techniques that will confuse Peyton and his protection schemes. Peyton is responsible for aligning the protection, if you can confuse him and bring pressure where he didn't see it coming, you can get to him. So its gonna take a clever mind to construct the necessary blitz packages that will break down his protection. Delayed blitzes, overload blitzes, stunt blitzes, zone blitzes, you gotta throw the kitchen sink at the guy. And the play calling has to be timed perfectly too, you can't get predictable with it.

Dallas has the talent in the secondary to play man coverage. The key is getting the necessary pressure in the front 7 to make Peyton throw it before he wants to. That will determine the outcome of this game. The defensive strategy of Dallas has been somewhat vanilla so far, and that won't cut it with Peyton. Also the pass rush simply has been disappointing as well, the big name guys are simply not winning their individual matchups often enough. So to sum it up, this game comes down to the defensive strategy and pressure. Ware and Carp need huge games. And there cannot be any missed assignments in the secondary.

Indy's offense is a thing of beauty. Its so simple, contrary to popular belief, and its just so perfectly executed. Every single play, its Harrison on the right, Wayne on the left, Stokely in the slot, and Addai in the backfield. Theres no motions, theres no movement of players for favorable matchups etc, they don't overload one side of the field, no bunches formations, nothing. Its the same set every play, they just hike that ball and execute. And no one can stop it. Practice makes perfect, and they perfected their playbook.

We all know how to beat the Colts. Everyone does. But theyre undefeated, because stopping/containing Peyton in the regular season has become near impossible. Forget everything you hear, you can't "confuse" Peyton. Thats simply not true. If his 4th read is open, he'll hit him. The key to beating Peyton is "confusing" his protection, and getting in his face. Thats how you make Peyton crumble.

To beat him, you need great confusing pressure (which is why he has a harder time with the 3-4), and a solid secondary. You can't play zone against him, he'll hit that window everytime. You gotta have the talent in the secondary to man up, or the pressure in the front 7 to get him before he can let it go. Usually you need both. Theres only one team that can play zone on him, and thats the Patriots because their team is so disciplined in their zone assignments, theres hardly a missed assignment. Every other team in the league needs to bring the heat and pray the man assignments hold their ground.

So the key to this game is coming up with clever pass rushing techniques that will confuse Peyton and his protection schemes. Peyton is responsible for aligning the protection, if you can confuse him and bring pressure where he didn't see it coming, you can get to him. So its gonna take a clever mind to construct the necessary blitz packages that will break down his protection. Delayed blitzes, overload blitzes, stunt blitzes, zone blitzes, you gotta throw the kitchen sink at the guy. And the play calling has to be timed perfectly too, you can't get predictable with it.

Dallas has the talent in the secondary to play man coverage. The key is getting the necessary pressure in the front 7 to make Peyton throw it before he wants to. That will determine the outcome of this game. The defensive strategy of Dallas has been somewhat vanilla so far, and that won't cut it with Peyton. Also the pass rush simply has been disappointing as well, the big name guys are simply not winning their individual matchups often enough. So to sum it up, this game comes down to the defensive strategy and pressure. Ware and Carp need huge games. And there cannot be any missed assignments in the secondary.

Agreed, although it's more like "Clark in the slot". He's their slot WR right now, over Stokley.

It will be interesting to see if BP uses that approach however. From past experience, and watching his strategies against high powered offenses such as the 49ers back in the day with my beloved Giants, I noticed that his usual strategy against high octane offenses has been an array of different style zones and zone blitzes. He rarely blitzes heavily, he relies on very disciplined zone assignments and lots of 2 deep safety plays to contain the offense.

And to keep them off the field, he increases the workload of the runningback. Thats what he's historically done, but let's see if he switches it up this sunday. It will be an interesting thing to watch as a fan of Xs and Os.

Indy's offense is a thing of beauty. Its so simple, contrary to popular belief, and its just so perfectly executed. Every single play, its Harrison on the right, Wayne on the left, Stokely in the slot, and Addai in the backfield. Theres no motions, theres no movement of players for favorable matchups etc, they don't overload one side of the field, no bunches formations, nothing. Its the same set every play, they just hike that ball and execute. And no one can stop it. Practice makes perfect, and they perfected their playbook.

We all know how to beat the Colts. Everyone does. But theyre undefeated, because stopping/containing Peyton in the regular season has become near impossible. Forget everything you hear, you can't "confuse" Peyton. Thats simply not true. If his 4th read is open, he'll hit him. The key to beating Peyton is "confusing" his protection, and getting in his face. Thats how you make Peyton crumble.

To beat him, you need great confusing pressure (which is why he has a harder time with the 3-4), and a solid secondary. You can't play zone against him, he'll hit that window everytime. You gotta have the talent in the secondary to man up, or the pressure in the front 7 to get him before he can let it go. Usually you need both. Theres only one team that can play zone on him, and thats the Patriots because their team is so disciplined in their zone assignments, theres hardly a missed assignment. Every other team in the league needs to bring the heat and pray the man assignments hold their ground.

So the key to this game is coming up with clever pass rushing techniques that will confuse Peyton and his protection schemes. Peyton is responsible for aligning the protection, if you can confuse him and bring pressure where he didn't see it coming, you can get to him. So its gonna take a clever mind to construct the necessary blitz packages that will break down his protection. Delayed blitzes, overload blitzes, stunt blitzes, zone blitzes, you gotta throw the kitchen sink at the guy. And the play calling has to be timed perfectly too, you can't get predictable with it.

Dallas has the talent in the secondary to play man coverage. The key is getting the necessary pressure in the front 7 to make Peyton throw it before he wants to. That will determine the outcome of this game. The defensive strategy of Dallas has been somewhat vanilla so far, and that won't cut it with Peyton. Also the pass rush simply has been disappointing as well, the big name guys are simply not winning their individual matchups often enough. So to sum it up, this game comes down to the defensive strategy and pressure. Ware and Carp need huge games. And there cannot be any missed assignments in the secondary.

Agreed, although it's more like "Clark in the slot". He's their slot WR right now, over Stokley.

It will be interesting to see if BP uses that approach however. From past experience, and watching his strategies against high powered offenses such as the 49ers back in the day with my beloved Giants, I noticed that his usual strategy against high octane offenses has been an array of different style zones and zone blitzes. He rarely blitzes heavily, he relies on very disciplined zone assignments and lots of 2 deep safety plays to contain the offense.

And to keep them off the field, he increases the workload of the runningback. Thats what he's historically done, but let's see if he switches it up this sunday. It will be an interesting thing to watch as a fan of Xs and Os.

I should note though that this was against a high powered WCO, which is very different from the vertical style of the Colts. Off the top of my head, I can't recall his strategies against high power vertical offenses, I would have to go back and look at some old tape. So yeah...maybe he imployed that style strategy against the 49ers because blitzing heavily makes no sense against the quick release 3 step drop style of the WCO. So who knows what he'll do, it will be interesting to watch.